Manchester City footballer Benjamin Mendy found not guilty of one count of rape

Manchester City footballer Benjamin Mendy cleared of one count of rape

Manchester City footballer Benjamin Mendy has been found not guilty of one count of rape.

On Tuesday, September 13, Mendy, 28, was cleared of the rape of a 19-year-old woman at his home in Prestbury, Cheshire, on 24 July, last year on the direction of the judge at his trial at Chester crown court.

His friend, Louis Saha Matturie, 41, was also found not guilty on the direction of the judge of two counts of rape and one of sexual assault against the same woman.

Matturie, from Eccles, Salford, had been accused of raping her on the same night as Mendy and again the following month.

Judge Stephen Everett ordered the jury to clear the defendants of those counts after the prosecution offered no further evidence and formal not guilty counts were entered.

Both men are still on trial for multiple alleged sexual offences.

Mendy is charged with another seven counts of rape against four women, one count of attempted rape of a fifth woman and one of sexual asssault of a sixth.

They span at least four different occasions between October 2018 and August 2021.

Matturie is charged with another seven counts of rape and four counts of sexual assault, relating to a total of eight women.